The present invention relates to printer supply spools, particularly to a method and apparatus for maintaining a transportable inventory of labels available for printing remaining on a supply spool.
There are a number of U.S. patents that disclose electronic apparatus for printing indicia on labels, some of which are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,440,248, Teraoka; U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,224, Shibayama; U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,538, Cushing; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,129, Wirth et al.
The electronic machines for printing labels of the type disclosed above all include the same general combination of elements, a print head, means for feeding labeling media to be printed past the print head, a microprocessor, a read only memory programmed with appropriate instructions to operate the microprocessor, a random access memory, a keyboard with letter, number, and function keys for the entry of alphanumeric information concerning the indicia to be printed, and a visual display such as a LED/LCD unit to assist the operator in using the machine.
The labeling media comprises a roll of pressure sensitive tape (continuous media or die cut labels)that is attached to a continuous roll of release liner. The release liner is fed through the printer and legends are printed on the label media. Labels are formed by cutting the tape after the legends are printed on the continuous media or by printing on the die cut label media. The labels are then removed from the release liner and attached to the objects needing identification. As there are many types of label applications, there are many combinations of label materials and release liners that provide labels of varying sizes, colors, formats, and environmental resistance.
A particular type of print head employs thermal transfer printing technology. Thermal transfer printing uses a heat generating print head to transfer colored coating containing wax, carbon black, or the like, from a thermal transfer ribbon to a labeling media. By using digital technology, characters are formed by energizing a sequence of pixels on the print head which in turn melt the coating on the ribbon transferring the image to the labeling media.
In a known thermal transfer printer such as a label printer, labeling media is fed by a platen roller simultaneously with a ribbon feed roller feeding an ink transfer ribbon. While the labeling media driven by the platen roller runs between the print head and the rotating platen roller, the transfer ribbon is passed between the print head and the platen roller by rotating the ribbon feed roller. As a result, the labeling media and the transfer ribbon pass together in overlay relationship between the print head and the platen roller.
One particular labeling media known in the art is die cut labels which are removably mounted on a release liner or web in rows across the web width. When printing die cut labels on a thermal transfer, continuous media printer, arranged with more than one die cut label across the web width, if the printer ceases printing and all of the labels in a row are not used, there is no known method in the prior art to automatically determine which labels in the row are available for printing. This results in label waste, as the printer must assume a potentially incorrect label configuration. This situation can also occur when a partially used labeling media spool is inserted into a printer. If a row is partially used, the user must advance the labeling media to the first full row wasting the labels in the partially used row.
The present invention provides a thermal transfer printer which includes: a spool that carries labeling media comprised of rows of labels mounted along the length of a web rolled up on the spool; an inventory of the labels is stored on an electronic memory device mounted to the spool; and the memory device is electrically connected to printer circuitry when the spool is mounted therein. When the printer prints on a label, the inventory on the memory device is updated to reflect the unavailability of the printed label.
The present invention accomplishes the general objective of maintaining an inventory of labels available for printing in a labeling media supply spool. This objective is accomplished by providing a memory device associated with the spool containing a label inventory, and updating the inventory when a label is used.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a transportable label inventory for a partially used labeling media supply spool. This objective is accomplished by attaching the memory device having the inventory stored therein to the labeling media supply spool.
These and still other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the description which follows. In the detailed description below, preferred embodiments of the invention will be described in reference to the accompanying drawings. These embodiments do not represent the full scope of the invention. Rather the invention may be employed in other embodiments. Reference should therefore be made to the claims herein for interpreting the breadth of the invention.